Hi Red,
I dropped by Jazzfanz today for the first time in years because I found myself wondering if all of the crazy political happenings and debate had changed anyones mind about anything. I had no intention of logging on, and definitely didn't anticipate replying to anything, but then I came across this post from you that mentions me. After reading the next few pages of this conversation I decided to come back to your post and reply.
First of all, I want to say that I hope all is well with you. You always struck me as a good guy. I remember when you first showed up on the site because you were a fan of some guy that the Jazz had acquired who I believe went to college in your hometown (or something like that). It's amazing that you stuck around here so much longer than that player (and so much longer than me). BTW, my life has changed dramatically since the days that I used to hang around here. These days I'm far too busy counting my blessings to spend much time on social media.
Second, I don't buy your claim that there are actual differences between liberal and conservative brains. As evidence I would point to people who were formerly categorized on one side of the aisle, and who are now firmly on the other side of the aisle? Did the composition of their brain change, or did they acquire more information or have some dramatic life experience that changed their mind. I think the latter in nearly every circumstance. I believe that the mistake we are all making is to think that any of us have anything approaching a complete grasp of the facts. This world is way too complex and it is moving far too quickly for any of us to ever have a strong grasp of what's is going on. I've found that the more certain someone is about something, the less that they probably know about it. Just as an example, the scientists who I admire most don't ever speak in absolutes, because they have learned from experience that everything we think that we know is just one experiment away from being proven incorrect. (Note: Anthony Fauci is a purported scientist who appears to understand next to nothing about the scientific method.)
And third (most relevant to the reason that I visited JazzFanz today in the first place), it is fascinating to me to discover that, at least on this site, all of the discussion and convincing that has gone on over all of these years has mostly had the result of solidifying the position of the poster who was trying to do the convincing. There are several names here that I do not know, and I can't be certain whether those are new participants or old participants with different names. Among the ones that I do know, they are all still advancing the same sorts of arguments that they were eight years ago, when I was active on this site. That is amazing! I'm guessing it has something to do with the anonymous nature of this forum. It sort of gives people a free pass to ignore facts that don't go their way, and then just plow forward with the exact same sort of future predictions as if they learned nothing from comparing their predictions to the actual outcomes as the future transformed itself into the past. Of course, I have only looked at the first few pages of this one thread, so maybe I'm off on my assessment.
One final thought: I'm not sure why I'm including this but I feel compelled to (and as I think about it, this dovetails into my earlier contention that liberal and conservative brains are not structurally different). A few winters ago I was backcountry skiing (one of my favorite pastimes). On a long hike up the hill I got into a fascinating political discussion with another skier. He seemed well informed. As we reached the summit he said, "I think you'd probably be interested in a book two of my brothers wrote. It's called The Myth of Left and Right. They just published it last week." I was stunned by the comment, because how could he hold a nugget like that until the very end of our conversation. After all, what were the chances that such a book had been published by his brothers only moments before I met and got into this discussion with him? I bought the book later that day. It was only in hardback, extremely expensive (so much so that I almost decided not to pull the trigger), and (I can now say) worth every penny that I spent on it and more. It lays out what I found to be an incredibly compelling case that left and right really are a myth. It shows what these positions really are, why this is a big problem, and it suggests what can be done about it. I would highly recommend the book to anyone who is truly interested in advancing political discussion. It's now available through Kindle at a much less expensive price. Those who are only interested in trying to shove their opinions down their enemies throats (yeah, I'm looking at you, Thriller), are going to hate it, so I would not recommend it to a guy like him. But many of the rest of you could probably get a lot out of it.
Cheers,
Joe Bagadonuts
